Visit from Grandpa B!

Last weekend Grandpa Bernard came down to visit, and we all had a blast! Probably our two favorite events of the weekend were our visits to the water park and the Natural Science Center.

As usual, Truman had a great time at the water park. For the most part we all just hung out in the water, walking around. Then, right when we were about to leave, Truman ran over to the area where water spouts up from the ground and started making friends with some other kiddos - it was super cute. He especially liked laughing with a little girl about his age. He's a real charmer!







The Natural Science Center was neat because there is an outdoor zoo area as well as a large, indoor area where Truman could run around and play. When we were outside, Truman had fun looking at tigers and crazy, huge anteaters:


He thought it was hilarious when he threw his toy on the ground and made Daddy pick it up:

They also had a neat "water show" that Truman enjoyed - he kept laughing whenever the water spouted up:





On our way inside we passed by a peacock - it was pretty neat:


Once inside, Truman loved just running around and seeing all the sights. Some of his favorites included the giant nose that made a sneezing noise if you put your hand under it and the large kids play area:









Finally, we all had fun just hanging around the house. All in all, it was a great visit!

Drawing with Daddy

Truman's first official solo drawing:

The Outer Banks 2: Part Deux

The second half of our lovely trip to the Outer Banks was spent relaxing at the beach. One of our favorite parts had to be our long morning walks. As we mentioned, when we first got to the beach Truman seemed pretty scared of the sound of the ocean; however, with each walk that we took he became more and more comfortable. By day 3, he made it a routine to fall asleep in his stroller every morning during our beach walks. Here's a collection of some of our favorite beach walk photos.

Daddy pushing baby:

Grandma Bernard with the boys:


Sleeping baby:

One morning we were lucky enough to spot a pod of dolphins (by the way, did you know that a group of dolphins is called a pod? I just learned that!). Unfortunately, we didn't have the zoom lens with us to get good pictures, but here's a blurry one of a dolphin's tale:


Everyday that we were at the beach, Truman became more and more comfortable with the sounds and sights. By Thursday, he was ready to swim in the ocean! We all went out to the beach, expecting Truman to once again be wary of getting near the water. We put him down, expecting him to ask Mommy to pick him up immediately (as he had been doing every other day), but instead he started running right for the water! It was so funny. He ran straight into the water and didn't look back. We had to hold him back before he got to deep in, and he loved every second of it! He was laughing and smiling and it was awesome :-)








Truman also enjoyed hanging out at the pool at Grandma and Grandpa Simmon's hotel. Our boy loves the water!!!




One final memory of our trip involved our sweet puppy, Oskar. I'm not sure if I'm mentioned it very often, but Truman loves Oskar. He thinks that Oskar is very silly. Lately, he's been learning how to play with Oskar. While we were hanging out one night at our beach cottage, Truman picked up Oskar's toy and started playing with him - we were all cracking up! Eventually, Oskar wanted to stop but Truman wasn't done and just kept pushing Oskar's toy in his face - it was too cute!







And so ended a busy, exhausting week at the beach, with fun had by all!